Rumor: 40 GB PlayStation 3 Has High Failure Rate
By Chris on Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 at 4:21 PM PST In Game Companies, Game Consoles, Game Platforms, Gamer Life, Hardware, Sony, Sony
Gamed.nl is reporting that the new 40 GB PlayStation 3 has a failure rate of 40% – an astonishingly high number. According to the Dutch site, Belgian retailer Games Mania has stated that the new PS3 model is selling well, but 40% of the consoles sold have been returned due to hardware problems. The problems primarily relate to the system being unable to read discs, Blu-ray or otherwise.
I’ve yet to hear of anything else regarding problems with the new hardware, so I’d hesitate to say this is a new another Red Rings of Death scenario. We also can’t confirm the validity of these reports, so this could simply be malicious rumors.
We’ll certainly be keeping an eye on the situation.
via Gamer.tm
Mine died too
The drive will no longer read any discs. it just died in the middle of a game
Yep these stories are 100% true! My ps3 just suddenly stopped reading any discs after 6 months or so. Load of rubbish. Sony are in deep, deep trouble it seems…
Mine stopped reading discs after just two weeks. I think anyone who doesnt believe these stories need to ge real.
HI ALL,I JUST GOT MY PSP 3 40GB.AND IT DID NOT WORK
,DID NOT READ DISC AT ALL,SONY SENDING ONE OUT TO ME IN TWO DAYS TIME,JUST GAVE THAM THE NUMBER AND SAID YA WILL SEND NEW ONE
It’s not only the 40G models. I bought an 80G model on November first. It lasted 5 weeks then wouldn’t read discs. I returned it for a replacement 80G model, and it lasted 2 weeks. I’m on my third now. The motor drive for the disc mechanism is failing so it will no longer spin the discs. PS3, Xbox360, Wii, they’re all piles of cheap crap. They’re all Built to cut costs so that they’re actually affordable. Because of this they all have high failure rates due to cheap parts and labor. Funny, I still own an Intellivision from 1982 and it still works. I can’t get a “Next Gen” console to last barely more than a month.
It was my 5th week with my 60 GB PS3 and its disc reader is totally dead. The usual story, I was playing a game and it just got frozen.
PS3 sucks……glad I don’t have one……
I just stumbled upon this site looking for help.
Bought my 40gb ps3 today, as every game shop in manchester said 60gb been discontinued and I’d be extremely lucky to locate one.
I knew PC World had a few but i got game vouchers for xmas and PCworld a ripoff so had t get a 40gb.
2 short plays on orange box and ratatouille and now nothing happens when i put any kind of disk in.
interface is fine, must just be the disk drive.
Sony are simply shipping out faulty goods!
I’m tempted t get a 360 instead.
admittedly a figure of 40% shipped goods being faulty seems very high but when it happens to you personally, its VERY believable.
WHY ME!!!!!!!!
its not surprising i was playing cod 4 then the thing froze on me. i restarted it and wouldnt play any of my games. going to eb games tomorrow. i also went online to see if anyone else had this problema and found this website
So it sounds like someone should go back to Sony and see if they may be downplaying a real problem. No on here yet has said that they have a 40GB PS3 that’s been working for more than a few weeks. If one company gets thrown under the bus for a 30% failure rate why doesn’t the other get the same attention?
I bought the 40gb with Siderman 3. Worked for one day, went back to Walmart and they gave me another one and this one isn’t recognizing any disks after 30 min of use… I rebooted and reset the PS3 (2 1/2 hrs), and tryed installing 2.10 upgrade and still doesn’t work. I don’t want to bash Sony, I got PS3 because I am a long time PS2 guy, I am not sure if I want to try again.
Sony screwed up with the PS3….they didn’t differentiate it from the Xbox 360 enough. The 360 was already out establishing a fan base…..the only “different” thing Sony brought to the table was Blu-Ray which ultimately caused Sony to price the damn thing at $600 which no one was willing to pay except the die-hards……I hate the PS3….I hate everything it stands for….Sony took something that had great potential and pissed on it….and now they are getting their asses handed to them by Microsoft and Nintendo…..maybe Sony should just throw in the towel and make games like Sega did because they sure as hell have forgotten what’s important in a game console…..
Wow…. a wee bit bitter ManOfTeal?
I bought 5 xbox 360’s and they all broke in two days each, where is the news story for that?
It’s all over the news Sk8man. The Xbox 360 problem is widely publicized and even people who care nothing about gaming have been innundated by the reports.
That’s where I have an issue with this one being swept under the rug because Sony said that it’s not true. There still has yet to be one person to disprove that it is a real issue but there are many giving it weight.
Bitter….yeah I’m bitter about how anyone can come in here and actually defend that failure of a console called the PS3 like it has something special to offer people……the ONLY thing special about the PS3 is that it is the first video game system since the Atari 2600 that I do not and WILL NOT own……
My 40 GB playstation 3 won’t let me play a blu-ray disk, Assassin’s Creed, but will let me watch high definition DVDs and Madden 08 which is also a blu-ray disk
I understand what Lee has said. I also spent hours re-setting the PS3 but nothing worked!
I heard of Xbox 360’s problem before and my friend also told me that (his) PS2 had disc reading problem when it first came out (it’s even written in Wikipedia).
I don’t have XBox so I really am not qualified to pass on any judgement and my PS2 bought 4 years ago is still working well. May be PS3 is just too advanced?
I think ManofTeal does have a point – the only differentiation appears to be the blue-ray capability, which incidentally is not working well in many cases (mine included).
I am not sure how widespread this PS3 problem is. However, I’d like to see some action from Sony to determined the cause of the problem – was it an isolated incident or not….
Hey guys,
just wanted to weigh in on the situation too. I got a 40 gig for Christmas and it stopped working today. I was in the middle of Assassins Creed when it happened. I’m not sure if its a hardware or software problem, but it froze up and after I restarted – no disc drive. I emailed Sony Customer Support, but havent heard back just yet. I dont understand why people are defending the problem or claiming that its not true. Is it that unheard of that there would be a manufacturing error of some sort? To claim that we’re all lying to tarnish Sony’s reputation is ridiculous. Anyway, waiting to see what will happen
Okay this is true it happened to me tonight at bout 630pm my time i was online tried to get online and it just wouldnt go off the getting game setting screen so i turned my system off and now it will not play or read anything from movies to games i mean notin i heard it is because of the new updrade that u had to do so if anyone has a relution please tell me thanks justin
i bought a 40gb ps3 on dec 27th, 48hrs later, i updated to 2.10 and it doesnt ready any disc. called sony and a box is shipped, so a replacement can be made. it seems that the optical drive is not functioning at all. maybe the bluray firmware update doesnt have `turn the motor on`command
cant wait till my replacement….
so not happy
LOL
I am still waiting to see any evidence to back all of this up. In fact its strange that no one else on the net seems to be unaware of this problem you idiots are trying to create. Where are all the returns notes, receipts, letters or any proof at all? This story was started by one shitty little website that couldn’t prove it and were told by Sony to stop making shit up. Since this story was posted Sony have sold over 2 million PS3’s, more than half of them are probably 40gbs. If just 1% of those were failing that would be 10,000 consoles. Do you seriously think that would go unnoticed the way this is? What does that tell you? It tells you it isn’t true but it has been jumped on by all the Sony hating retards on here. There is apparently an issue with Assassins Creed game freezing but that has absolutely nothing to do with the 40gb PS3, it is a problem with the game and Ubisoft are working on a patch for it.
Hi Norbit
I understand your scepticism but I am not claiming that there are 40% failure rate. In fact I don’t believe many people here are. We are merely claiming that our PS3 40GB (and some other models) have failed to operate. Furthermore, not many here are attacking Sony, again, we are merely stating the fact that our consoles suffered failure.
I have not uploaded any evidence to support my claim of return as this site does not allow you to upload any images (I don’t have a web page either). And even if I or we uploaded such evidence, you will probably ask for engineers’ report on the failure as anyone can claim malfunctioning console and return it (PC World took my word for it and gave me a refund – Colliers Wood in South London, SW19 2PP). Besides, receipts, etc., will have personal details which I’d rather not share on the Net!
Could it be possible that we all bought the PS3 from the same batch of malfunctioning shipment?
We cannot expect 100% reliable product delivery as no doubt some components, perhaps those not made by sony, will fail to operate. Even PS2 first had a problem – this is documented on Wikipedia at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_2
My PS3 stopped reading discs when playing Need for Speed but other discs also did not work (DVDs, music CDs, and other PS3 games such as Sega Rally & VFighter).
Well Norbit, let’s wait and see what will happen with PS3 – may be you are right, or we are,,, who knows?
I’m not saying the PS3 doesn’t fail I’m saying there is no problem of any note. Sony have admitted that their failure rate is 0.02% which means we can expect problems in about 200 of the 40gb’s sold in the last few months. That failure rate is 150 times lower than the industry accepted rate of 3% and at least 250 times lower than the Xbox 360’s failure rate which is at least 5%.
Unfortunately there are some individuals who are trying to make a big deal out of this and I suspect many of the posts on this page have come from the same IP address. This is why I asked people to back up their claims with some kind of proof.
I’m sure you are telling the truth and are just one of the unlucky few however the fact that there are so few genuine complaints on the net about the PS3 proves there is no inherent fault, as does the fact that there is nothing at all being heard from any retailers about high numbers of returns or any increase in returns at all. As I said before, just a 1% failure rate would have meant 10,000 returns in the last 2 months which would have been 50 times more than normal and that would not have gone unnoticed. I may be wrong but I doubt it very much
Anyway its nice to hear from a fellow Londoner. I’m from Barnet myself.
Hi Norbit
You do have a point and I can see where you are coming from!
What I’d like to see is a published report or some sort of indication from retailers that PS3 40GB (and other models) are actually being returned for failure, etc.
I checked Which? web site but no such report.
I think this will provide us with more picture on what is happening. Are we over-reacting or are those failures true? I want to buy another one so I really would like to know what is happening!!
Hope you had a good holiday season.
Hi Ged. I had a great Holiday thanks and I actually have the whole of January off as well because I’m switching jobs (£5k pay rise woot!) but the new one doesn’t start ’till Feb
I might be completely wrong about the reports on here but it seems strange they aren’t more widespread if there is a problem. The simple fact that Which and Watchdog are unaware of anything is quite telling.
I always see it as being totally normal to provide some kind of proof when discussing things like this because it gives a post so much more weight. For instance if I were to tell you I on a photgraphy forum that I bought an Epson scanner 2 years ago and its still working perfectly you might just take me at my word or you might not. If on the other hand I told you that and then showed you a scan of my receipt (with personal details removed of course lol) it removes any doubt at all.
http://i3.tinypic.com/81srj2r.jpg
MY PS3 JUST GAVE OUT ON ME ALSO, I GOT IT FOR MY SON ON XMAS DAY AND IT GAVE OUT YESTERDAY, IT DOESNT READ ANY DVDS WHATSO EVER ITS BS TO THINK THAT A COMPANY LIKE SONY WOULD PUT OUT THIS MACHINE WITH THESE ISSUES, IVE ALWAYS BEEN A BIG MFAN OF PS1 THEN PS2 , BUT THEY REALLY FUCKED UP WITH PS3 . IM CONSIDERING TRYIN OUT THE WII OR AN XBOX 360. I WILL CALL SONY AND SEE WHAT THEY TELL ME!!!
^ My point proved I believe
Bad timing on that post Norbit…
I cant confirm if this rumour is true or not but what i can confirm is that i have had two ps3 40 and both were faulty the problem was they both kept on freezing and were not playable so i had a refund after a lot of deliberating with a certain store . maybe it is just coincidentle but ill let you decide
Well i can tell you this is not a rumour!
i wish it was a rumour!!
today my ps3 60GB version stopped reading any dvd, cd or blue-ray disc’s.
The little loader circle in the upper right corner is going in circle’s but nothing happens.
only demo’s are working, and all other functions from the harddrive..
it really seams that de drive is death.
This is bad.. really bad!!
when this was happening i found this forum.. so i lett you all know
the story is true!
I purchased a 40 gig PS3 on Nov. 7,2007 My son opened it up on Christmas. The disc drive is defective, does not read any formats. When my wife purchased it from Gamestop the seal was opened she told the salesperson and they said “we check them”
I go to take it back and they say go through sony it is opened. All I wanted was a exchange. The receipt states Any product can be returned up untill 1-15-08. Complete bull shit. I call to ask to speak with the manager I get a girl on the phone she tells me SHE IS THE MANAGER! I tell her my problem and same thing SONYS problem. SO I askk for supervisor regional, manager, president etc… This idot gives me the regional manager ph#, I ask for her name, she gives it and tells me game advisor! This loser isnt even the manager. Then she gives me her store managers name. I know that you can send them back to SONY Gamestop!, I paid #400.00 to you not Sony. You gave me a product that did not work out of the box that you opened and checked it! So all I see from your company is a bunch of lies, lies, lies. I hope nobody else ever buys a item that is checked by gamestop again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
after 2 weeks of use my 40gb will no longer read disks
waiting for the sony exchange for a new one
I havn’t had any problems with my 40g ps3, Been playin it solid for 1 month. I’ve beatin Assasins creed, Lair, Call of duty 4, Recon 2. Well over 50 hours of playing. Yes i have a life, i’m just on break from college.
On the other hand i have a budy that cant play his new games he got from christmas cuz of his x box 360. He sent his burned up 360 in three times and they still havn’t fixed it.
Makes me wanna be a sony lover.
Anyways the reason why theres all bad comments about the ps3 is cuz there the only ones on the internet trying to find why its broken. Any company’s gonna have a few falty machins. Have u ever seen how UPS or FEDDEX ships there boxes around. I’m suprised they all dont work.
Why isn’t there any good comments on her for ps3 u say???? Its because The ones that have a working ps3 are playing it. The reason for me being on here is cuz i’m trying to find out whats wrong with my friends pos 360.
furthermore i wouldn’t spend my money on something that plummeted as hard as the 360. I’m sure its an ok system now. But if i had to spend an extra $30 for a fan to keep the pos running i’d rather pass.
I also can say this is true. I have an 80GB Bundle ps3 unit and two days ago after 1 month, has failed on me.No disk ,cd, game or blu ray will play. The XMB works, demos work even the playstaion eye….but nothing else…..Now i have to wait three weeks for my ps 3 back…..i ws on the last assanation on assaisns creed!!!!!!AHHH!!!. I formated the ps3 (which took 4 and a half hours) and still didnt work… I love Sony and and hope that they take a close look at this situation….
I can relate to Mhvll’s message. Ps3 is a fantasic gaming system. It’s also thoughtful about the shipping part. I never took that into consideration. My brother drives for FedEx and he said there preloaders literally throw there packages into there cars to make time.
I havn’t seen or heard any problems with the ps3 that were out of the ordinary stuff such as the drive not working. I work at a mall and sell all three products ps3, xbox, and the wii. I’ve seen most returns on wii controlers but thats about it.
I own all three and love um to death. The ps3 is by far the ultimate gaming system all around. But xbox live and games keep it ahead for now. Wii is on its own playing field U cant touch the prices but it did cause alot of damage with throwing controlers around. And Xboxes ring of death was terrible. Ps3 has not had a true report on malfuncting, and from where i stand i’ve only had 2 ps3’s returned only because the wanted a bigger gig package. I’ve sold over 40 ps3’s and all returnes go through me.
MMmmmmm good old sony,
Missus bought PS3 for my birthday (Dec 28th). She allowed me to have it for Christmas, fantastic. Birthday came, OH, discs won’t work, nothing in the drive works, nevermind, back to shop, swapped straight away, lost Colin Macrae saves but hey ho.
Got playing again, completed Assasins Creed, now on to Rainbow six, well NO.
oh bugger, same problemo, so let me think, in less than a month I have had 2 problems with the disc drive, little bit miffed.
100% failure rate here for a 40G purchase in mid November 2007 ie 1 out of 1. After 6 weeks of light use the optical disc simply stopped reading discs. No error messages, zip. Unfortunately at 6 weeks the purchase is just outside the 30 day instal warranty period and must go back to Sony. They will exchange it for a second hand machine. If you are within the 30 day instal warranty period you can exchange the broken machine at point of purchase for a new machine. I hope the replacement has the fix if these machines have a systemic problem. I really don’t want to be sending another machine back to Sony in 6 weeks, 3 months or 1 year. Surely a piece of computer hardware can last 3 years without failure?
If you used a credit card, dispute it with the CC company. They will probably have you ship it back with tracking to either where you purchased it, or Sony, but CC companies stick up for you.
I cant say if the ‘high’ failure rate is true or not, but I can say I’ve had two in a row that were defective.
I got a 40gb for Christmas and right out of the box (which was sealed) it didn’t work. It wouldn’t read any discs, nor would it access the hard drive (I repeatedly checked to make sure it was attached to the machine correctly). I exchanged it for another on the 26th at my local GameStop. This one read only DVD’s (No Blu – Ray, no CD’s, and no writeables).
For the record, my 360 Elite which I recieved on Aug 5, 2007 has had zero issues. None.
Norbit, I’m not going to show you shit. Take it on faith, we have no reason to lie.
(Well some might, but certainly not me. I’m a gamer, not a fanboy.)
Personaly i’m on Norbits side. I bet 99% of these messages are bull shiz.
And atleast 80% come from the same fag that has nothing else better to do with his time.
And why is it that we dont hear all of this stuff on other web sites???? about the ps3 being such a hunk of junk…
I visted this forum trying to find a fix for my dead PS3.
I’m not a gamer and am not could up in game consul rivalry. I purchased the PS3 to get BD capability and to hook my X series 46″ Bravia up to my home network (great media player solution).
I posted to get stats on the board. Hopefully a few more post like this will get an investigation going, and if there is a problem the machines fixed before sale and those that have been sold recalled and fixed…..just like what happens with cars. The failure of a PS3 could be as big a health risk as a faulty steering arm on a car …couldn’t it? Ask my 5 and 3 year old who want to watch a movie now. Wheres that email with the bloody bar code so that I can send the box off..their email is down.
I’d like to further share my experiences with the forum but will not be doing this because I would have to read the crap that gets posted. Best of luck to all who pass this way who have the 40GB PS3 that suddenly stops reading discs after a couple of weeks problem.
How about a naming competition for the problem. My go is “PS3 with a BD” where the BD stands for bad disc and not Blueray Disc.
Adiose Amigos
All I can say is, I had this exact problem. One week after getting my 40g PS3, and immediately after playing my first Blu-ray, it refused to recognize any disc – Blu-ray, DVD, Audio CD, etc.
It may not be 40%, but the failure rate is obviously very high, and Sony has obviously skimped on some hardware in order to bring the price down.
Also, it will take at least 4-6 weeks to get my next one, including all the shipping times. Horrible!@!!@@!#%$
yep same problem here, asked the guy from support hotline why the 40gb consoles have such a high come back rate, he said that not many are returned for warranty problems. i find this a load of shit cos ive spoken to over 30 people i know who have all had major issues. that is just in the company i work for alone! i also spoke to a mate who is a courier and he said he personally delivers over 50 ps3 consoles per week back to the repair centre in sydney. to add insult to this shit product purchase i have waited more than 6 wks and the thing still hasnt left the repair centre. the whole reason the console was purchased was to aid my recovery from near fatal ankle surgery and ive played it for less than an hour.$700 for less than an hour, that is the most expensive video game ive ever played!very very pissed off.
yea wtf dude my ps3 dont play nothin anymore its gay so i called em up and
wait wait wait wait wait…………Ged you said yours stopped working after need for speed? hmm thats the same thing that happened to me…..like i tryed to download that update and it failed so now it doesnt work anymore nothin does for it i mean demos dude but the damn thing doesnt read discs
Same problem here only had my PS3 for 2 weeks, was playing Skate and it locked up and then stopped reading disks of any type. Called Sony customer support and they said they would ship me a box to return it to them. No thanks, I took it back to BB and returned it for a new one and bought the BB warranty. I am telling everyone that I know not to buy the POS oops I mean PS3!
Same thing happened to me too… the disc drive just stopped reading any disks after about a month. E-mailing sony resulted in nothing more than a 5 day wait that ended in a canned troubleshooting email, so I’ll just have to call them up I suppose. It failed in the middle of watching a BD movie, and then when we tried to play DVDs or games, nothing worked anymore. The little “loading” icon would stay up in the corner for eternity without anything loading up.
40% might be a bit unreasonable as an estimate, but considering how much I’m hearing about this issue, the failure rate is probably still pretty high, at least on just the 40 gig versions.
I really love the system though, so I swear on my life that I’m not lying – it’s a FUN system with some awesome games, and I can’t wait to have it up & running again (or to have a new one, which ever happens – probably the latter).
I had the same failure problem just a couple of days ago. I was playing a game and it froze mid way. Then i tryed to play another game and it wouldnt load it, the loading circle in the upperright was there.. but nothing was happening. Yes i have a 40gb ps3 and i suggest sony fixes this problem